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Faith/World/Sects/Luminara
|text= Luminara __NoTOC__ Luminara is a manufacted, monotheistic religion worshipping a god of pure power and holiness, represented by light. Its dominion is called the Dominion of the Light, aka Luminarium. Luminara zealously prosecutes anyone who demonstrates magical power or magical learning - and kills such people, who they deem heretics or witches, by beheading. Hence, in the lands under the dominion of Luminara, there are none who wield personal magical power in the light of day. Luminaran Magic The high priests of Luminara enchant various artifacts with various blessings, based on lores and hymns and prayers that only the high priests have access to. These are then granted to those deemed worthy by the church hierarchy. Because each artifact only has one express purpose, the Wielders of Luminara are considerably less flexible in how they apply their abilities than the spellworkers of many other sects; this is intentional, as it allows the religion’s hierarchy to exert control over its followers. However, in exchange for their rigidity of application, the artifacts do their task really well - far better than the spellworkers of other faiths. A far less common manifestation of the power of Luminara is in miracles. This is when a magical feat manifests apparently without any physical reason - ie. not the doing of a priest or an artifact enchanted by a priest, and not the doing of a spellwiller. Of course, miracles *is* spellworking, but it’s crowd-sourced spellworking, a result of the shared beliefs by those in the vicinity that a miracle is due. In some cases, a person who brings about multiple miracles through sheer presence, all of which are of benefit to the religion and its priesthood, will be beatified as a saint. Finally, the city of Luminaria, the birthplace and capital of the religion and its dominion, has a central tower, the Spire of Light, which functions as a brilliant beacon for one night out of the year - the holiday of Illumris, which celebrates the manifestation of their god Lumin and the founding of the religion. Derogation As a newer, manufacted faith, Luminara was designed to be capable of overwhelming most other religions. Its monotheistic god is believed by followers to be far more powerful than the other gods (of other religions), and that those other gods are all deceivers, demons who each only have command of one domain (element), given power by Luminara’s one true god (Lumin) to show all the peoples of the world that no false god can stand before Lumin. Correspondingly, the scriptures of Luminara include stories where the gods of the other religions extant at the time were bested by or had supplicated before Lumin. Those who believe strongly in this tale of Luminaran superiority will be empowered relative to those of other gods by the axiom of derogation of faith, as this myth condescends upon the other religions. However, Luminara has no such inherent advantage against the newer faiths that arose after the writing of the Luminaran holy scripture. Military Luminara is a vast religion with a great many followers and extensive lands. It has numerous legions - thousand-man regiments divided into centuries - comprising its army, and in its preamble to battle their soldiers recite the stories and hymns of the great deeds of Lumin and their faith’s various saints. These troops primarily fight via mundane means, for the religion does not allow any spellworkers other than their priest-enchanters to live; the best and favored among them (generally centurions and legionnaires) are equipped with various enchanted artifacts. The luminaran legions are masters of the “moving the nexus” as well as “spreading the nexus”, allowing them major successes against the opposing faiths. Oath Rods and Descry Luminaran priests wield oath-rods, which are believed by followers to inhibit lying when properly focused on anyone being interrogated. The priests often use them in confessions, where they use the power of this enchantment to force the truth from the sinful or guilty; these confessions can effectively identify those traveling in Luminaran lands who have magical powers (are witches), as peoples’ belief in the power of the oath-rods gives them that power. The Luminaran deiscrius (or “descry”, but which translates to “god’s sight” or “god’s eye”), a symbol representing the holy eye of Lumin, is often used as the shape for these artifacts. The descry is three nested circles. The same symbol is often used for rings and amulets. }}